The trunk lid is kept open by two torsion springs that run from hinge to hinge.

These springs have become detached and the trunk lid is extremely heavy and difficult to hold open

Right now I have this car in the third service company.trying to refit them, the other two gave up

If anyone has advice on installing these springs I would be grateful..

Also, if anyone could provide pictures of these sprigs installed on the hinges, it would be extremely helpful.

Unless I can get this problem resolved, I will have to sell .

Winfield

 

Man, I went out to the garage, dug through my Haines repair manuals and found the one I have on the Saturns from 1991-1999 (all models). It's COMPLETELY USELESS for this issue. Zero information on the hinges. Here's what I could find. It's for trunk lid removal. I'll skip the first things that say use a helper and mark the hinge positions. Starting with step 4. With the help of an assistant, remove the hinge bolts on both sides and lift the trunk lid off.5 Installation is the reverse of the removal procedure. When reinstalling the lid, align the heads of the bolts with the marks made during removal. 6 After installation, close the lid and make sure it's in proper alignment with the surrounding body panels. Fore-and-aft and up-and-down adjustments of the lid are controlled by the position of the bolts in the hinge arms. To adjust it, loosen the hinge bolts, reposition the lid and and retighten the bolts. 7 Side-to-side movement of the lid is adjusted by loosening the hinge-to-body nuts under the rear package shelf, moving the lid and then tightening the nuts. The height of the lid in relation to the body can be adjusted by loosening the latch striker bolts, repositioning the striker and retightening the bolts. I DON't see how any of this will be helpful, but just wanted to show how useless the Haines manuals really are. I THINK those hinge rods have to be criss-crossed in an X-pattern and simply fit into a couple of slots in the hinge arms, but don't remember exactly. I'm a long way from any junkyards to go look. Sorry I can't help you out.

 

Rube is correct. The bars are installed in a crisscross pattern into slots on each side. Apparently they are under tremendous torsional strain and as such lose their restoring Force also known as springiness over time. I was advised by a Saturn tech back in the day not to mess with them unless I wanted to lose a finger tip. Neither of my trunk lids stay up. But they are also not heavy as crap. If yours have become completely detached that would explain the total non-support of the trunk end the apparent weight as a closes and opens.

Last time I was at a junkyard, I was pulling pristine taillights from a 3rd gen coupe who's trunk was apparently in the same situation as yours, only I did not realize it the first time I bumped it while removing the tail lights, it came down full force on the back of my head. Not pleasant.

I think the only thing to do is to figure out approximately how much physical twist there needs to be to have the same spring constant in a new piece of rod that will fit in the channels. An intelligent Machinist should be able to empirically figure this out or at least approximate it by knowing it must be higher than what he measures for the ones you have now. If you serve as the guinea pig and he gets it right, he may become a supplier Nationwide for replacement torsion springs for Saturn S-Series trunks. Who knows. I think the cost of materials involved to do trial and error is minimal. Actually I have a machinist that lives near me. What a my side arms is parked so I may remove the rods and let him have fun. I will let you know if anything comes of it